This smelled like my heaven.

Holy Mother of Deliciousness. What have I done? This might not look like the most delicious thing, but trust me, it’s pretty up there in terms of savory brunch dishes in my opinion. This could also have something to do with the amount of beers I consumed the night before I made this.

This dish is a great example of how you can elevate the flavors in a dish by substituting store-bought ingredients with homemade. Instead of using store-bought sausage for the filling, I used some homemade breakfast sausage from last weekend. I also made my own enchilada sauce instead of using the canned stuff.

Prep time on the dish was probably a little over an hour start to finish. Totally worth it.

Breakfast Enchiladas

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

Simple Enchilada Sauce:
6 large dried chiles (I used 3 anchos, 2 new mexico chiles, and 1 chipotle)
1-2 Cups water (from soaking chiles)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 whole cloves, chopped really finely (or 1/2 Teaspoon ground cloves)
2 canned tomatoes (about a cup... if you use fresh you need to cook them down first)
Big pinch of salt and pepper

Filling:
8 large eggs
1 pound breakfast sausage
1/3 Cup cream
4 Tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter

You'll also need:
12 corn tortillas
8 ounces cheddar cheese
Optional toppings like avocados, hot sauce, sour cream, etc.

Directions:

1) Remove stems and seeds from dried peppers and add them to a medium pot of simmering water. Turn off heat and steep for 10-15 minutes until peppers are soft.

2) Add soft peppers, garlic, tomatoes, cloves, and about 1 Cup of water that the chiles steeped in to a blender and blend until smooth. You might need to add more water depending on consistency.

3) Add sauce to medium saucepan and keep warm over low heat until ready to use. If the sauce gets thick, add more chile water in small increments.

4) Add eggs, cream, and butter to a medium saucepan and over low heat, stir until the eggs start to cook, about 10-15 minutes. They should cook very slowly.

5) When the eggs appear to be about halfway cooked, add cooked sausage to the eggs and continue to stir until eggs are almost done, but definitely undercooked. Remove from heat.

6) To make the enchiladas, take a corn tortilla and dip it in the sauce. Remove it and top it with a few tablespoons of egg/sausage filling. Roll it up and add it to a baking dish. Repeat until all the filling is used (about 12 enchiladas).

7) Pour extra sauce over top of the enchiladas and add grated cheese.

8) Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees until cheese is melted.

9) Serve with sides like avocado, salsa, hot sauce, or sour cream.

The Enchilada Sauce

You can 100% use a canned enchilada sauce and this meal will still be plenty delicious. I just wanted to take it to the next level by making my own. It only takes a few minutes really and makes for a much more interesting and unique dish.

To start, you’ll need some dried chiles. I pulled out a few from a huge bag of random dried chiles I keep in my pantry. Just chop off the stems and shake out the seeds. It’s okay if there are some seeds left.

The only way to go.

Add the chiles to some simmering water and let them soak for about 10-15 minutes until they are soft. Don’t throw out this water! It’s like a chile stock and we can use it to add flavor to the sauce later.

Don't throw out this water!

I used a few basic other ingredients for this sauce. You can make a tomato-less chile sauce, but I really like having some tomato flavor. I used a few fire roasted whole tomatoes from a can. I also chopped up a few cloves of garlic and few whole cloves.

The cloves give the sauce a really unique flavor. I got the idea for the cloves from this Simply Recipes chili sauce recipe. Elise didn’t use tomatoes in hers though and I like the tomato flavor.

Cloves are interesting but awesome.

Add all the sauce ingredients to a blender and give them a whirl! Add some reserved water from the chile steeping in 1/4 cup increments until you get the desired consistency. I probably used about 1 cup of water for mine. Using the chile stock added a lot of flavor.

I don't think I need to tell you how good this was.

Pour the sauce back into a small saucepan and put it over low heat to keep it warm. It’ll probably start to simmer and if it starts to get too thick, just add some more chile stock to the sauce to keep it relatively thin. While my sauce was keeping warm, I probably stirred in another 1/2 Cup of water while I prepped my other stuff.

The Filling

The filling for these enchiladas is a pretty standard scrambled egg and sausage filling. I used homemade breakfast sausage and cooked my eggs using the slow method. For more details on this method (which produces the best scrambled eggs you’ll ever have), check out my how to cook scrambled eggs post.

To start, add the eggs, cream, and butter to a large pan and put them over low heat. That’s right. Low heat. You want to cook them slowly, not quickly. That keeps them silky smooth.

Good scrambled eggs.

Break up the eggs and slowly stir them. As they heat up, they will start to cook. After about 10 minutes of slow stirring you’ll have something that looks like this (you’re about halfway done).

Worth the wait people.

At this point, I added my sausage (which I reheated first) and put back on low heat. After another 5-10 minutes of slow stirring, your eggs will be done.

They should be a bit undercooked. Remember that we are going to bake this all together so the eggs will set-up at that point.

Still a bit undercooked.

Making the enchiladas

I like to use corn tortillas for my enchiladas, but flour would work also I think. I just dunk the tortilla in the hot enchilada sauce which loosens it up a bit and then set it on a plate.

Put on a few tablespoons of filling and roll it up!

The fun part!

It’s a messy job, but doesn’t take too long. I was able to get about 12 enchiladas out of this filling. I filled out two small baking dishes (or you could use one 9×13 dish). I added some extra sauce on top as well.

All lined up.

Cover this dish with grated cheese and pop it in a 350 degree oven until the cheese is melted and bubbling (about 15-20 minutes).

Then serve up the enchiladas with sides of your choosing. I went with avocados!

I wish Macheesmo had smell-o-browsing.

These were pretty sloppy but as far as enchiladas go they were awesome. There was a bit of sweetness from the sausage and the eggs were perfectly cooked.

The whole dish was just pretty scrumptious. In my opinion, this is a good example of how much you an improve a dish by taking a few extra minutes to make something from scrach. In this case, the enchilada sauce really stole the show even though the sausage was also homemade.

Spicy!

A few weeks ago I went on a pantry cleaning expedition. You see my pantry space is incredibly limited. In fact, I don’t really even have a pantry. It’s just a single cabinet that I keep all my canned/dried stuff in.

Ideally, it would be perfectly organized but it pretty much always looks like a bomb went off close by. Occasionally though I do get inspired when I notice that I have, say, four different bags of almonds.

While I was cleaning out my “pantry” this time around I found, tucked way back in the back, a gallon plastic bag with a random assortment of dried chiles in it. Of course, I had lost them long ago and already replaced them all, but dried chiles really keep forever so I figured they were probably still good.

So I put them to use! I’ve been meaning to make a good batch of chili powder for awhile now and this gave me the tools I needed!

Three Chile Steak

Yield: Serves 2.

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 pound steak. You could use almost any steak you want for this.
Ancho chiles
Chipotle Chiles
New Mexico Chiles
Salt and Pepper
Neutral Oil

Helpful Equipment:
Food Processor
Mortar and Pestle
or
- A plastic bag and a mallet or rolling pin

Directions:

1) Add your dried peppers in a single layer to a baking sheet and bake at 250 degrees for 30 minutes, turning a few times throughout.

2) Cool peppers for a few minutes. They should be very crunchy. Remove the stems from each pepper and shake out as many seeds as you can.

3) Grind up the dried peppers either using a food processor, a mortar and pestle, or just put them in a plastic bag and mash them with a mallet or a rolling pin.

4) The chili powder will keep for months in a plastic bag.

5) Rub your steak with the chili powder, covering the steaks in an even layer. Also sprinkle with salt and pepper and press the spices into the steaks.

6) Grill the steaks over medium-high. Depending on thickness and doneness you'll probably need to cook them for 8-12 minutes, turning once half-way through.

7) If you're using a cast iron skillet, add a tiny amount of oil to the pan over high heat. Once the oil is hot, add your steak and sear for 3 minutes per side. Then finish in a 350 degree oven for 5-10 minutes depending on thickness and doneness.

8) Rest steaks for 5 minutes before cutting.

Making the Chile Powder

If you’ve never made chili powder before, it’s pretty straightforward and almost guaranteed to be better than anything you can find in the store.

I used 4 New Mexico red chiles, 3 ancho chiles, and 1 chipotle chile. You could, of course, change this up, but I found this to be a really good ratio. It’s wasn’t a really hot powder at the end of the day, but it had a ton of chile flavor going on.

Anyway, just lay all your chiles out on a large baking dish.

The line up.

Bake them at 250 degrees for about 30 minutes, turning them once or twice throughout. Then pull them out and let them cool off. They should be really crispy at this point. Like you should be able to just crumble them in your hands.

Remove the stem from each pepper and shake out as many seeds as you can. It’s okay if there are a few seeds left though. You don’t need to be super-thorough about it.

You now have a few options for how to actually make the powder. You could just throw all your peppers into a food processor or coffee grinder and grind them up. You could also just put them all in a plastic bag and beat the heck out of them with a mallet or rolling pin.

For this batch though, I used my cool new mortar and pestle to grind them up!

Love this.

What I love about the mortar and pestle is that the texture isn’t over-processed. So you have mostly powder but occasionally there are small flakes of chiles also and it just makes for a much more interesting spice mixture.

I’ve made chili powder using all of those techniques though and it always works out. You can store the finished product for months in a tightly sealed bag. Mine never really lasts that long though because I put this stuff on all kinds of things.

Great texture and flavor.

The Steaks

My first use for this powder was some nice steaks I picked up. The thing to remember about rubbing steaks with something like this is that you can go pretty heavy on it. Some of the seasoning will fall off as it cooks and you want to make sure you have plenty of flavor to match the flavors of the meat.

Also be sure to season with some salt and pepper and really press the spices into the steaks.

Don't be shy with the rub.

Ideally, you could grill these guys, but I had to use my trusty cast iron skillet which is not necessarily a bad thing. It just heats up the house.

Wishing for a grill....

If you’re using cast iron, add a tiny bit of neutral oil to the pan and then sear on each side over high heat for about 3-4 minutes. Finish in the oven at 350 degrees for another 5-10 minutes depending on how thick your steak is and how you want it cooked. For medium rare, I finished it for about 5 minutes in the oven.

If you’re grilling it then you can obviously just keep it on the grill over medium-high heat until it’s ready (probably 8-10 minutes total).

Then transfer them to a cutting board to rest for at least 5 minutes.

Very important.

Resting the steaks is probably the most important part of cooking a juicy steak. You don’t want to cut into them right away or all the juice will just flow out of the steak. Letting it rest gives the steak a chance to finish cooking and also lets the juices redistribute through the meat. I sliced mine up for serving after it rested.

Perfect.

This steak had some spice to it but it wasn’t too hot at all. Just really good flavors. I served it with a baked potato and salad and it was a really awesome meal.

The leftover steak is perfect for a steak salad the next day also.

Steak or no steak, homemade chili powder is where it’s at.

So we decided it would be a good idea to have a guy’s night mainly with the goal of making them jealous. I spent a few hours braising some pork butt to make some carnitas. I figured that would a good guy’s night dish. I was right.

I might be wrong, but I’m pretty sure the ladies were jealous of our carnitas.

Guy's only!

Before I get too far into the carnitas though, I also made up a batch of my new favorite salsa. It’s really simple, but very tasty.

Carnitas

Yield: 1/2 pound per person

Prep Time: 30 minutes + marinade time

Total Time: 4 hours 40 minutes

Ingredients:

Boneless pork shoulder aka pork butt. I used a 3 pound cut for this post but just adjust it for however many people you are serving.
1 lime
Salt and pepper
2 Tablespoons canola oil
3-4 Mexican beers
Water
Assorted dried peppers (I used a mix of 2 ancho, 3 New Mexico, 7 arbol)
4 cloves garlic, sliced
2 bay leaves

Plus you'll want:
Flour or corn tortillas
Salsa (above or from a jar)
Red onion, sliced
Cojita cheese, crumbled
Cilantro (optional)
Black beans (optional)

Simple Salsa:
1 28 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes, drained
1/4 red onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 lime, juice only
2-3 jalapenos, seeded and chopped
Handful of cilantro (optional)
Salt and pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Blender

Directions:

1) To make salsa, roughly chop all your ingredients and add them to a blender or food processor. Pulse until it's chunky. Adjust flavors to fit your tastes.

2) Trim off some of the larger chunk of fats from the pork butt. Chop the butt into a few large chunks and add them to a bowl with salt, pepper, and the juice from one lime. Let this all marinade for an hour.

3) In a large dutch oven, heat a few tablespoons of neutral oil. Once hot, add pork chunks and sear well on all sides. Work in batches and don't crowd the pan. They will need 4 minutes per side to brown well.

4) Pour off the fat from the pork and reserve it for later. Don't wash the pot.

5) Add roasted dried peppers (roasted at 300 degrees for just 5 minutes) to the pot along with a cup of water. Use the water to scrape up all of the burned bits of pork in the pan. This is easy if you have it over high heat still. Then add all your other braising ingredients and bring to a simmer.

6) Add pork pieces back the pot. When liquid is simmering, cover, and put it in a 325 degree oven for 3 hours.

7) Remove your pork pieces from the pot after they braise and let them cool briefly. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees at this point.

8) Once your pork is cool enough to handle, pull it into strands with a few forks or your hands.

9) Add the pork to a baking dish. Pour the pork drippings from earlier over the shredded pork. Bake at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes and the top of the pork will get nice and crispy.

10) Serve with warm tortillas and lots of toppings.

The Salsa

To make it, just roughly chop up all your ingredients and then add them to a blender or food processor. The fire roasted tomatoes give the whole thing a great, almost smoky flavor. Muir Glen makes a great version.

The fire roasted tomatoes are were it's at.

Blend this up until it’s a bit chunky or whatever consistency you are going for. This was about right for me.

Just add chips.

The important thing with salsa is to taste it on a chip as you go and adjust for flavors. Adjust for salt and pepper obviously but it also might need a bit more lime juice. It’s best if you can make this many hours before you need it because it’ll get better as it sits in the fridge. Also, it’ll get spicier so if you’re going to let it sit remember that’s gonna be hotter in a few hours.

The Carnitas

Ok. So there’s a lot of different ways to make carnitas, but the thing to remember is that it’s pretty hard to go wrong. If you want to be completely authentic, you need to actually braise the pork in lard which was a bit intense for me. Not because I’m scared but just because I don’t have the space for like a gallon of lard in my pantry. Plus it seems a bit excessive. If you’re interested though, here’s a good authentic recipe.

Instead of that, I braised my pork in a spicy beer liquid and then broiled it really hot once it was pulled to get it nice and crispy. I’m getting ahead of myself though.

Preparing the Butt

When you get your pork butt it’ll be large. Try to trim off some of the larger chunks of fat and then cut it into even pieces, four or five is ideal for a 3 pound butt. Then toss them in a bowl with a good pinch of salt and pepper and the juice from one lime. Rub this all in and let it sit for an hour at least, but the longer the better.

Nice lookin' butt.

One very important to making these work is to make sure you brown the meat nicely before you braise it. This actually goes for anytime you want to braise something. In a large dutch oven (or something oven and stovetop safe), heat a few tablespoons neutral oil. Once it’s hot add your pork pieces. Make sure they aren’t touching or overlapping. I had to do mine in two batches.

Let them sit (don’t fiddle!) for 4-5 minutes on each side. You want a really nice sear on each side. These were my pieces. Remember that these are basically raw on the inside. This is going to give the final product a lot of flavor though.

Browner the better.

In your pot, there will be lots of almost burned bits of pork and probably 1/2 cup of rendered pork fat. Pour off the fat and save it for later. We’ll need it in a few hours. It’ll look like this.

Oh… and don’t wash the pot!

Important.

If you have an assortment of dried peppers, they will give some great flavor to our braising liquid. I used a few that I had laying around. You can substitute 2 or 3 Tablespoons of your favorite chili powder if you want, but the whole chiles are cool.

If you use whole chiles, toast them in a 300 degree oven for about 5 minutes to activate all of their oils and flavors. Then you can add them right into the braising liquid.

This will smell spicy.

The Braising liquid

Braising the pork makes it incredibly tender and flavorful and is really the only way to go in my opinion. Take the pot that you used to brown the pork (you didn’t wash it did you?!)

Put the pot over high heat again and pour in about 1 Cup of warm water. Using a wooden spoon or spatula, scrape up all of those delicious pork bits. It should make a pretty dark liquid. Then add your pork pieces back into that liquid.

Add your beers, chiles, garlic, bay leaves, and enough water to just barely cover the pork. Should look something like this:

Do I have to tell you how this turned out?

Let this come to a simmer. Once it’s simmering, put on the lid and stick it in a 325 degree oven for about 3 hours. It’ll take that long for all of the fat in the pork to melt completely.

After a few hours, you can lift your pork pieces out with tongs. You’ll know you’re done because the pieces should almost fall apart just from lifting them out. They should be really tender.

After a few hours...

You’ll need to let these cool for a few minutes before you can handle them. Meanwhile, heat up your oven to 450.

Once your pork is cool, pull it into chunks using either your fingers or two forks. For guy’s night, I just used my hands because that’s the manly thing to do.

Add this to a baking dish.

It basically just falls apart.

Right now the pork is delicious, but it’s not as delicious as it could be. Ideally, we want to crisp it up a bit to make the texture even better.

Remember those pork drippings that were left over from browning the meat? Pour those over the pulled pork. Then add the dish into the oven.

After about 10 or 15 minutes, the pork will be crispy on the edges and just as tender.

Crispy and delicious.

Add this to a warm tortilla with your toppings of choice and you are ready for a meal.

The cojita is awesome.

If you’re curious what guys do when the ladies are out, I’ll let you in on a secret.

We try to take over the world.

Global Domination!

Dorky? Maybe. But whatever. We had fun (and I won). Plus we ate really well.

So take that ladies. Maybe next time we’ll invite you.

]]> http://www.macheesmo.com/2010/03/guys-night-carnitas/feed/ 13 http://www.macheesmo.com/2009/11/buffalo-chili/ http://www.macheesmo.com/2009/11/buffalo-chili/#comments Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:00:46 +0000 Nick http://www.macheesmo.com/?p=9282 Chili is always an intimidating thing for me to make due to people’s chili allegiances. Similar to ribs, people have serious beliefs on what chili should be: beans, no beans, beef only, etc. It can get a little crazy so I’m always a bit hesitant to make it for fear of causing a chili feud.

But it’s fall and it’s football season, and sometimes I just need chili. So for the last poll, I posted only chili recipes, and then ended up making one that wasn’t even an option to vote for: buffalo. Allow me to explain! First, beef won and for chilis buffalo and beef can be used pretty much interchangeably. Second, a commenter suggested I make buffalo instead of beef so it wasn’t really my idea to sabotage the poll (Hi Lauren!). Third, buffalo is delicious, inexpensive, and underrated so I wanted to use it.

Buffalo chili really hit the spot.

Probably the best chili I've ever made.

This chili is spicy and has some intermediate elements to it like making your own chili powder. The final product is amazing though and you can of course take some short cuts if you want like using canned black beans or pre-packaged chili powder.

You can fret about getting chili perfect, but at the end of the day it’s probably going to be pretty darn good regardless of what you do.

Buffalo Chili

Yield: Serves 6.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

Chili:
1/4 Cup olive oil
2 pounds buffalo (or beef) roast, trimmed of any large fat pieces and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
Salt, pepper, and a pinch of all-purpose flour
1 large red onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, crushed
4 Tablespoons chili powder (I made a blend of ancho and New Mexico chilis.)
1 Tablespoon ground cumin (roasted whole seeds are awesome)
1 bottle dark beer
2 Cups water (Bobby recommends chicken stock, but I think water makes the chili flavor really do all the talking.)
1 (28 ounce) can stewed, crushed tomatoes
4 chipotle peppers, diced (optional)
1 Tablespoon honey
1 Cup dried black beans or 2 Cups cooked
1 lime, juice only
Chips for dippin'

Cumin Cream:
1 Tablespoon toasted cumin seeds, crushed (you can use ground if that's all you have)
1 Cup sour cream or creme fraiche
Salt and pepper

Guacamole: (or avocado relish as Bobby calls it...)
2 avocados
1/2 red onion, diced
1 jalapeno, finely diced
Lime juice
Chopped cilantro
Salt and pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Spice Grinder

Directions:

1) Cut roast into cubes and toss it lightly with 1 Tablespoon of flour and salt and pepper.

2) Heat up oil over high heat in a large pan with a lid. Once your oil is hot, brown the meat in batches and let it brown nicely on all sides for just a few minutes. The goal here isn’t to cook the meat, it’s just to brown it a bit and get some flavors going in the pan.

3) After a few minutes, remove all meat and set it aside. Take your pan off the heat until you’re ready to make your chili so all the bits of flavor in the pan don’t actually burn. Don’t wash your pan though!

4) For chili powder, split each pepper in half (remove the seeds and stems) and roast in a 200 degree oven for about 30-40 minutes. Let them cool for a few minutes. Give the roasted peppers a whirl in your spice grinder.

5) Put the pan back on the stove with about 4 Tablespoons of oil. Add red onions and start to cook them down. After a few minutes add garlic. After another minute or so add all chili powders and cumin!

6) Add your full bottle of beer. Open a beer for you. You deserve it.

7) Stirring pretty steadily, let the beer cook down in your onions and chili for about 10 minutes. It should reduce by about half.

8) Add your buffalo/beef back to the mix and then add all your other ingredients except the beans. Give it a good stir and bring it to a simmer.

9) Let this cook down on low heat, covered, for about 45 minutes. Give it a stir every 15 minutes or so.
Note: If you look at Bobby’s original recipe it says to add 5 Cups of liquid. If I would have done that, I would’ve made buffalo soup. Basically, I’d recommend adding enough water to just barely cover your meat and veggies.

10) For the Creme Fraiche (you could substitute sour cream) stir in a Tablespoon or so of cumin and stick it back in the fridge until you need it.

11) For the “Avocado relish” also known as guacamole, mix everything up in a bowl!

12) Once chili has cooked for about 45 minutes, uncover it and add beans and continue to cook it for another 15 minutes or so until it is nice and thick.

13) Taste it! What does it need? More heat? More salt? Adjust it accordingly. Serve it with a big scoop of avocado and cumin cream with lots of chips for dipping!

From a Bobby Flay recipe.

If you just break this dish into parts, it isn’t all that hard.

Preparing the meat

A good 2 pound roast is the best for a dish like this. You want there to be some fat throughout the meat which will make your meat really tender as it cooks. Cut your roast into cubes and toss it lightly with flour and salt and pepper.

You don’t want the meat actually coated in flour. You just want it to kind of dry out the meat a bit. I used maybe 1 Tablespoon for the whole 2 pounds of meat. You shouldn’t even be able to see the flour on the meat. Hit it with a really good pinch of salt and pepper also.

Has some decent marbling on it.

Heat up your oil over high heat in a large pan with a lid. You’re going to make the chili all in one pan. Once your oil is hot, throw in all your meat and let it brown nicely on all sides for just a few minutes. The goal here isn’t to cook the meat, it’s just to brown it a bit and get some flavors going in the pan.

If you have little brown bits stuck to the pan, that’s a good thing! After a few minutes, remove all your meat and set it aside. Take your pan off the heat until you’re ready to make your chili so all the bits of flavor in the pan don’t actually burn. Don’t wash your pan though!

Pretty much rare.

Making the Chili Powder

I think making your own chili powder can add a lot of personality to the dish. For my version I used two different kinds of chiles: The New Mexico Chile and the Ancho Chile. Neither of them are particularly spicy, but they have some good flavor.

I love these guys like family.

To make the powder, you just need to dry these guys out a bit more. Split each pepper in half (remove the seeds and stems) and roast them in a 200 degree oven for about 30-40 minutes. Then let them cool for a few minutes. They should be very crunchy after that.

Then just give them a whirl in your spice grinder and you’ll have really flavorful chili powder!

Slightly different colors and flavors.

Obviously, you can make this earlier in the day or even days in advance if you are crunched for time. It will keep in an airtight container for awhile.

Other ingredients

It’s probably a good idea to get all your other ingredients ready as well before you start building the chili.

You'll want these guys also.

Not pictured are beans. I used some dry beans which I cooked according to the package (soaking the night before and boiling in slightly salted water.) You could definitely use canned though if you want. We’ll add in the beans at the very end of the chili.

Starting the chili

Remember that pan that you cooked the meat in? Get it back on the heat. You want there to be about 4 Tablespoons of oil in the pan so depending on how much oil your meat used and how much fat it gave off, you might need to add or remove some oil from the pan. I just kind of eyeballed it and ended up adding another Tablespoon of oil.

Next add your red onions and start to cook them down. After a few minutes add your garlic to the mix. Keep a close eye on this so it doesn’t burn. After another minute or so add all your chili powders and cumin! I also tossed in a bit of cayenne for some heat, but it might have been overkill!

This will make a dark and mysterious paste-like thing.

Intense flavors!

It will smell really strong which is awesome. Next, add your full bottle of beer. It will hiss and steam and smell even better.

Open a beer for you. You deserve it.

Cook it down

Stirring pretty steadily, let the beer cook down in your onions and chili for about 10 minutes. It should reduce by about half.

Adding everything else

Once it has cooked down a bit more, add your buffalo/beef back to the mix and then add all your other ingredients except the beans.

Give it a good stir and bring it to a simmer.

The simmer is on.

Let this cook down on low heat, covered, for about 45 minutes. Give it a stir every 15 minutes or so.

Note: If you look at Bobby’s original recipe it says to add 5 Cups of liquid. If I would have done that, I would’ve made buffalo soup. Basically, I’d recommend adding enough water to just barely cover your meat and veggies.

The Condiments

The condiments for this dish are optional, but I think they were a nice touch. For the Creme Fraiche, you could substitute sour cream, but just stir in a Tablespoon or so of cumin and stick it back in the fridge until you need it.

Meanwhile make this!

For the “Avocado relish” also known as guacamole, mix everything up in a bowl!

And this!

Once your chili has cooked for about 45 minutes, uncover it and add your beans and continue to cook it for another 15 minutes or so until it is nice and thick. And as with most things: Taste it! What does it need? More heat? More salt? Adjust it accordingly.

Serve it with a big scoop of avocado and cumin cream with lots of chips for dipping!

Some serious comfort food.

This is just one of those meals where you feel complete after eating it. It’s so perfect for a rainy day when you just want to curl up on the couch and eat some comfort food, but it’s equally good for pleasing a football watching crowd!

So while I’m no chili-officianado, I know what thing: This chili is good. And if you’re in need of some chili love, this recipe will provide it.

I think there are three important qualities to a solid chicken wing: 1) Tender and juicy meat. I hate an overcooked wing. 2) Heat! This one is debatable but in general I think a wing needs some heat for it to be memorable. 3) Messy. I better have to lick my fingers.

These sticky wings have all three of those qualities!

Sticky, spicy, and wonderful.

I had a hard time deciding what to call these guys because I actually adapted the rub and sauce from a ribs recipe. It’s got some Asian flavors going, but also some Southwestern aspects. The wings have a dry rub on them, but then are tossed in a sauce.

Basically, they are all over the map. But I’m not exaggerating when I say that the recipe is probably in my Top 10 wings I’ve ever had in my life. And trust me… that is a very serious statement.

Sticky Wings

Yield: Serves 4-6.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

3-4 pounds chicken wings, about 3 dozen

Dry Rub:
1/4 Cup packed brown sugar
2 Tablespoons ancho chile powder (see my note below on making the rub or you can use regular chile powder)
2 Tablespoons finely ground coffee (espresso beans are called for in the original but I just used a dark roast bean)
1 1/2 Tablespoons Kosher salt
1 Tablespoon hot paprika
1 Tablespoon onion powder
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon fresh ground pepper
1 Teaspoon dried thyme, crumble it up

Sticky Sauce:
1/2 Cup rice vinegar
1 large shallot, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1/4 Cup sugar
1-3 Tablespoons hot chili sauce (like Sriracha. I used 3 Tablespoons because I like them spicy)
6 Tablespoons canola or vegetable oil

1/4 Cup cilantro, chopped for garnish (optional)

Helpful Equipment:
Coffee Grinder (for espresso and also grinding ancho peppers if you are making your own chili powder)

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees, unless you are making the ancho powder, then preheat it to 200 degrees.

2) Grind regular coffee beans for the rub.

3) If you want to make your own with dried peppers, just cut off the stems and scrape out the seeds. Then slice them into quarters and set them in a 200 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Take them out and let them cool and then you should be able to grind them up really easily using a spice/coffee grinder.

4) Trim down chicken wings: using a sharp knife, find the joint between the wing tip and the middle section of the wing and slice through it. If you can slice the joint correctly you won’t have to apply much pressure. You can toss the wing tips or save them for chicken stock.

5) Do a similar cut in the joint between the drumstick and the middle section. Again, it should slice pretty easily if you go through the joint. If you are chopping through the bone every time, you are making your life harder than it needs to be.

6) Once all wings are cut, dunk them in rub and press it on to each side of the wings. Make sure each wing has a good even coat of the rub.

7) Bake these at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. At the 20 minutes mark, pull them out and flip them with tongs.

Note: These wings are delicious with just the rub. If you want to stop here you’ll end up with a delicious (although not exactly sticky) final product. It will still please the masses though I promise.

8) Whisk together all sticky sauce ingredients in a medium bowl while wings cook.

9) Get out a large sauté pan and put it over high heat. Whisk sauce to make sure it’s all combined well and then pour it into pan.

10) After just a few minutes over high heat, the sauce should be starting to bubble nicely and the sugar from the sauce will start to thicken up a bit. The sauce should still be pretty runny though, you don’t want it to thicken up too much.

11) Then throw all your baked wings into the pan! When the wings hit the sauce, the sauce will stick to the wings and thicken up even more almost instantly.

12) The whole process takes only about 5 minutes per batch. Once they are all sticky, serve them immediately with some chopped cilantro on top.

Adapted from Oct 2009 Bon Appetit Ribs Recipe.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees, unless you are making the ancho powder, then preheat it to 200 degrees.

Making the Rub

So most of the ingredients for the rub are fairly common. I did grind my own coffee beans for the rub (although I just used regular coffee I had on hand, not espresso beans). The one thing that might throw off some people is the ancho powder.

If you happen to have some dried ancho chiles, it is pretty easy to make it, but you could also just use normal chili powder. Or, of course, you could go buy actual packaged ancho chile powder which is fine if you’ll use it in other recipes.

If you want to make your own with dried peppers, just cut off the stems and scrape out the seeds. Then slice them into quarters and set them in a 200 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Take them out and let them cool and then you should be able to grind them up really easily using a spice/coffee grinder.

Some pieces in this elaborate rub.

This is a really solid rub. I think I might start mixing up larger batches of it and keeping it on hand for chicken and popcorn and stuff. It has a really great flavor and is spicy, salty, and sweet. Fantastic stuff.

All mixed together.

Prepping the wings

One great thing about chicken wings is they are very economical. They still aren’t huge sellers in America compared to breast meat so you can get them for a pretty good price normally. Even the organic chicken wings at Whole Foods were like $3.50/pound. Not bad at all.

Most likely you get the whole wing when you buy them from the store or butcher. It’s pretty easy to trim them down to a noticeable product though. First, using a sharp knife, find the joint between the wing tip and the middle section of the wing and slice through it. If you can slice the joint correctly you won’t have to apply much pressure. You can toss the wing tips (on the left below) or save them for chicken stock.

Then do a similar cut in the joint between the drumstick and the middle section. Again, it should slice pretty easily if you go through the joint. If you are chopping through the bone every time, you are making your life harder than it needs to be.

Two simple cuts for each wing.

If you are a visual learner, the first 30 seconds of this video does a good job of showing how it’s done.

Rubbing the wings

Once all your wings are cut, dunk them in your rub and press it on to each side of the wings. Make sure each wing has a good even coat of the rub. Don’t worry. They won’t be too spicy. The rub is actually not that spicy. It just gives the wings tons of flavor and a tiny bit of texture from the sugar caramelizing.

No need to go light on this stuff.

Bake these at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. At the 20 minutes mark, pull them out and flip them with tongs. This will just make sure that your rub doesn’t burn on the bottom of the wings.

Note: These wings are delicious with just the rub. If you want to stop here you’ll end up with a delicious (although not exactly sticky) final product. It will still please the masses though I promise.

Sticky Sauce

Assuming you do want to take it to the next level, whisk together all of your sticky sauce ingredients in a medium bowl while your wings cook. It’s that easy really…

Sticky business...

After 40 minutes, pull your wings out of the oven. Check out these beauties!

Honestly, they were awesome just like this!

Making the wings sticky

Here’s the trick for making the sauce sticky and getting a good even coating on the wings. Get out a large saute pan and put it over high heat. Whisk your sauce to make sure it’s all combined well and then pour it into your pan (I did mine in two batches actually so I only added half my sauce at a time, but you could try it all at once depending on your pan size and your courage level.)

After just a few minutes over high heat, the sauce should be starting to bubble nicely and the sugar from the sauce will start to thicken up a bit. The sauce should still be pretty runny though, you don’t want it to thicken up too much. Then throw all your wings (or half if you are doing batches) into the pan! When the wings hit the sauce, the sauce will stick to the wings and thicken up even more almost instantly.

The whole process takes only about 5 minutes per batch. Once they are all sticky, serve them immediately with some chopped cilantro on top.

Cilantro is a nice touch.

These guys have a very complex flavor going on. They have a good amount of vinegar almost like a vinegar based bbq sauce, but also have Asian aspects to them with the ginger and everything. I was worried that they would be too busy actually, but they turned out pretty much perfect.

This might be my new go-to wing recipe when I don’t want the straight up, standard buffalo sauce variety.

That said, the recipe still has some ingredients that may not be commonplace in your kitchen. But, if you are willing to make a few spice investments, this spice rubbed pork chop is definitely worth the effort.

This was a good plate of food.

There’s really three parts to this dish: The spice rubbed pork chop, the blackberry sauce, and the yam fries. I also made a very simple fresh corn salad that I served with it. I’ll give you that recipe at the end.

Pork Chops with Blackberry Sauce

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

4 large boneless pork chops
2 large sweet potatoes for fries

Spice Rub (Adapted from the Red Sage Cookbook)
1 Teaspoon dried Thyme
1/8 Teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 Teaspoon fresh nutmeg
1/8 Teaspoon allspice
1/2 Teaspoon star anise
1/2 Teaspoon coriander
1 Teaspoon Szechuan Pepper (or black pepper is fine)
1/2 Teaspoon salt

Blackberry Sauce (Adapted from the Red Sage Cookbook)
3 Ancho Chiles, I used dried but he used fresh which he roasted at 200 degrees for a few minutes.
2 Cups chicken stock, homemade is best
1 Cinnamon stick
2 pints blackberries
2 sprigs of mint
1 Tablespoon lime juice
4 Tablespoons sugar (he lists this as optional, but my sauce was very bitter without it.)

Seasoning Mix for Fries:
1 Tablespoon Chile Powder
1 Teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon cayenne (my addition and I like it although I'll note that it's hot. If you don't like cayenne heat, decrease this or leave it out.)
1 Tablespoon Kosher salt

Directions:

1) Rub each chop with a liberal amount of rub and wrap them tightly in plastic wrap. Stick them in the fridge overnight to give the rub some time to really flavor the meat.

2) Chop up the peppers into cubes and add the peppers, stock, and cinnamon stick to a saucepan over medium heat until it starts to bubble.

3) Add the blackberries and mint and cook it for another 10 minutes or so.

4) Remove the cinnamon stick and mint from the sauce and blend it up until it is smooth.

5) Add the lime juice and taste for sugar (3 – 4 Tablespoons) and salt. Once it’s blended, strain it and pour it back to the saucepan.

Note: You can either keep the sauce on low heat so it stays warm or you could make it a few hours ahead and then reheat it when you need it.

6) Peel the yams and chop them into a normal fry shape. Mix the simple seasoning.

7) Take the chops out of the fridge 30 minutes before you want to cook them so they can come up to room temperature. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

8) Roasted the chops for about 30 minutes total, turning them halfway through the cooking time. You just need to cook them until they have an internal temperature of 140 degrees.

9) As soon as you stick the chops in the oven, heat a few quarts of canola or peanut oil in a large saucepan until it registers 350-360 degrees.

10) Toss in the fries and cook them until the bubbling stops (about 10-12 minutes a batch).

11) Toss the fries with the seasoning right away while they are hot.

12) Serve chops with fries and possibly a quick corn salad.

One thing that is really important when tackling a new recipe, especially if you think it may be a complicated one, is to break it down to it parts and then plan when you’re going to do what. This recipe broke down really nicely into those three parts and by the time my guests had arrived, I was done with about 90% of the work.

Let’s start at the very beginning, which for this recipe is the previous night.

Rubbing the Chops

I didn’t use the exact spice rub that Chef Miller gave in the book. I didn’t have Mexican oregano around (or any oregano at all for that matter) and I wanted to add some peppercorns to the mix. Other than adding the Szechuan Peppers and leaving out the oregano, this is what he intended.

For the visual learners:

Kind of intense.

As you can see, I used mostly whole spices because I had them. Use whatever you can find though and I would definitely encourage substitutions. I honestly wouldn’t recommend going out and buying all of these if you don’t have them. In my opinion, the most important spices for the rub are the coriander, cinnamon, and allspice.

After a quick spin in the grinder:

This smells awesome.

Now what you don’t want to do with this very amazing rub, is slather it on some cheap, thin chop. The rub would just overpower the meat. It’s definitely worth it to spend the extra money on some really nice, thick chops for this recipe.

Rub each chop with a liberal amount of rub and wrap them tightly in plastic wrap. Stick them in the fridge overnight to give the rub some time to really flavor the meat.

No need to go light on the rub.

So the chops are basically done. All we have to do is actually cook them. Let’s move on to item two which is the blackberry sauce.

Making the Blackberry Sauce

I was really skeptical about how this sauce would work out but surprisingly, Chef Miller knows how to make an awesome sauce that pairs perfectly with the chops. That was a joke by the way. It’s silly that I would ever be skeptical of something that a chef of his caliber would make.

All you really need to do to make this is to chop up the peppers into cubes and add the peppers, stock, and cinnamon stick to a saucepan over medium heat until it starts to bubble. Then add the blackberries and mint and cook it for another 10 minutes or so.

Then remove the cinnamon stick and mint from the sauce and blend it up until it is smooth. Add the lime juice and taste for sugar and salt. I had to add about 3-4 Tablespoons of sugar to remove some of the bitterness from my sauce. It was really tasty though at that point.

Pretty solid sauce.

Once it’s blended, I would recommend straining it and pouring it back to the saucepan. I let my sauce bubble for another 10 minutes or so to thicken it a bit more. You can either keep it over low heat so it stays warm or you could make it a few hours ahead and then reheat it when you need it.

Making the Fries

Ok. So Chef Miller serves this chop with yam chips, but I don’t have a mandolin so I decided fries would be a safer bet.

I did 3 yams for 4 people and I think I would do 4 if I were doing it again because these suckers were delicious.

Basically, just peel them and chop them into your normal fry shape.

Sliced and diced.

Again for the visual learners on the seasoning for the fries:

Maybe too much cayenne...

Roasting the Chops

Take your chops out of the fridge 30 minutes before you want to cook them so they can come up to room temperature. Meanwhile preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

I would have messed up cooking these chops big time. I probably would’ve tried to sear these chops in a hot pan and it would’ve been a disaster. The spice rub on these guys would’ve burned instantly. Chef Miller recommends roasting them on a rack so that they roast evenly and the rub doesn’t get scorched.

Ready for roasting.

This worked like a charm! I roasted them for about 30 minutes total, turning them halfway through the cooking time. You just need to cook them until they have an internal temperature of 140 degrees.

Cooking the Fries

The timing works out perfectly to start cooking your fries as soon as you stick your chops in the oven. Heat a few quarts of canola or peanut oil in a large saucepan until it registers 350-360 degrees.

Then toss in the fries and cook them until the bubbling stops. I found that they need to cook for about 10-12 minutes a batch. Don’t throw too many in at once or it will just decrease your oil temperature and you won’t end up with an awesome crispy fry.

A fry like this:

Addictive. Seriously addictive.

Toss the fries with the seasoning right away while they are hot. Once my guests arrived all I had to do was finish off the fries and plate everything!

So excellent.

As you can see, I also served a simple corn salad with this which was just fresh corn, blanched green beans, halved grape tomatoes and scallions. I tossed those ingredients in a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar and let it chill in the fridge until I needed it.

Ok. So this meal may look intimidating, but if you deconstruct it into its parts, it isn’t really all that bad. That said, if you make anything out of this meal, make the fries with the seasoned salt mix. Those were incredibly tasty.

Helpful Equipment for this Post:

- A mandolin (if you want chips instead of fries)
- Spice Grinder
- Rack for roasting

Some people like gooey messes of cheese.

But what you don’t want to do is rely on it. So, to prove him wrong (something I really enjoy doing), I made a really flavorful filling using three different kinds of chile peppers. Then you can either add a bunch of cheese or not. You can also top your three chile quesadillas with all kinds of fun stuff.

A mean quesadilla.

The recipe for these guys is extremely flexible. I’ll reproduce what I did below, but seriously feel free to adjust the peppers or the pepper quantity based on how hot you can handle.

Three Chile Quesadillas

Yield: 6 quesadillas

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground beef or mushrooms (I did 1 pound of each)
1 dried ancho pepper
6-8 dried Arbol peppers
6 chipotle peppers (and 1 Tablespoon of adobo sauce from the can)
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 12 ounce can black beans
4 Tablespoons oil
6 large tortillas (I used the very large ones made for wraps)
12-16 ounces shredded cheese, cheddar is always good
Salt and pepper

Toppings:
Fresh salsa
Greek yogurt or sour cream
Guacamole

Directions:

1) Cut portabella mushroom into chunky cubes.

2) Let the Ancho pepper soak in hot water for a few minutes the dice.

3) Crunch up the entire Arbol pepper. Use the skin and the seeds. Add these to a large skillet with a few tablespoons of oil and crank up the heat to medium-high.

4) Let simmer in the oil for a few minutes.

5) After a few minutes, add onions and garlic. Then add mushrooms (or beef) and chipotle peppers.

6) After about 6 minutes mushrooms will start to be cooked down and/or beef browned.

7) Add in black beans. Taste for salt and pepper also.

8) Lay each tortilla out, add a bit of cheese to one half, then pile on filling and finally top it with some more cheese.

9) In a 350 degree oven, cooked each quesadilla for a minute or two open-faced which helps melt the cheese well. Then take it out and fold over the half of the tortilla without filling on it. Then back in the oven for another 5 minutes or so.

10) After a few minutes, flip the quesadilla and cook it for a few more minutes.

11) Serve topped with salsa, guacamole, Greek yogurt of sour cream.

Making the filling

Jeff realized that this maybe wasn’t going to be the normal blah filling when I brought these guys out.

Lots of flavor. Lots of heat.

If you’re using mushrooms get a nice hearty mushroom like portabellas. Cut them into chunky cubes.

Meat substitute.

For the ancho pepper, let it soak in hot water for a few minutes to loosen it up a bit. No need to do that with the Arbol peppers though. Dice up the ancho pepper, and crunch up the entire Arbol pepper. Use the skin and the seeds. Add these to a large skillet with a few tablespoons of oil and crank up the heat to medium-high.

Let these simmer in the oil for a few minutes. Don’t worry, I didn’t forget about the chipotle. If you add that now though, it will just burn.

Nice.

After a few minutes, add your onions and garlic to the party. Then finally your mushrooms (or beef) and chipotle peppers. After about 6 minutes your mushrooms will start to be cooked down and/or your beef browned. Then add in your black beans. Taste for salt and pepper also.

Basically, the goal is to make one delicious and spicy filling.

The mushroom version will come out looking like this:

Fantastic filling alert.

And the beef version:

For you carnivores...

Cooking the quesadillas

Since all your flavor is in one filling, this is a really easy quesadilla to pull together. Lay each tortilla out, add a bit of cheese to one half, then pile on your filling and finally top it with some more cheese.

Ready to cook.

Now there are a few different ways to cook these guys. Basically, you just need to melt the cheese and crisp up the tortilla. I like to do this in the oven. In a 350 degree oven, I cooked each quesadilla for a minute or two open-faced which helps melt the cheese well. Then take it out and fold over the half of the tortilla without filling on it. Then back in the oven for another 5 minutes or so.

After a few minutes, you might want to actually flip the quesadilla and cook it for a few more minutes. Depends on your oven and tortilla.

You could also cook these in a skillet. I like the oven method because I can cook 3 or 4 at a time and kind of forget about them.

This is the mushroom version without any toppings.

Naked.

Honestly, they taste pretty good just like that, but I think the fun part about quesadillas is topping them with all kinds of fun stuff.

All dressed up.

You might be able to guess this, but the star of the show here is the filling. Both the meat and mushroom versions turned out great. The three different chiles made a very smooth heat with lots of flavor.

At the end of the day, I think I convinced Jeff that quesadillas can, in fact, be more than a cheesy-filled mess. He had no problem polishing off a few of these guys anyway.

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